From Surviving to Stable: How to Turn This Year’s Funding Into Long-Term Financial Health
Episode Overview
Short-term funding relief is here—but is your health center using it wisely? In this episode, Jill Steeley makes the case that the most dangerous thing a healthcare leader can do right now is mistake temporary funding for long-term stability. She challenges health center leaders to use this funding window intentionally, shifting from reactive survival mode into deliberate, strategic building.
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In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
- Why recent funding approvals represent a window of opportunity—not a solution
- The difference between survival thinking and true stability (and why it matters)
- What reactive leadership sounds like in daily practice—and how to break the cycle
- How short-term money reinforces short-term thinking that keeps organizations stuck
- Specific areas to address with this funding: no-shows, patient mix, reimbursement, operational efficiency, and outdated technology
- The powerful flywheel effect that happens when leaders commit to building stability
- Jill’s personal experience taking a health center from nearly $1M in the red to a sustainable financial position
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Key Takeaways
“This funding is not long-term stability. It’s a window—use it to build stability, not to delay hard decisions.”
“Survival isn’t wrong. It’s necessary in certain moments. But survival thinking becomes dangerous when it becomes our default mode.”
“Stability doesn’t arrive when funding settles down. It arrives when leadership decides to build it.”
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How to Use This Funding Window Wisely
Jill outlines the critical areas health center leaders should address now:
- Fix revenue leaks – address no-shows, last-minute cancellations, and unfilled appointment slots
- Evaluate staffing – identify areas of over- or understaffing and align capacity to demand
- Upgrade inefficient technology – outdated systems drain productivity and revenue
- Improve provider productivity – assess and optimize productivity rates
- Stabilize your patient mix – actively recruit and attract more insured patients
- Strengthen reimbursement – ensure you’re maximizing what you receive from health plans for the patients you serve
- Build systems that hold – create operational infrastructure that works even when funding gets tight again
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Mentioned in This Episode
- Join the live webinar, Friday, 2/13/26, 12 PM PST, 3 PM EST – Jill Steeley and CEO Bootcamp partner Steve Weinman will host health center leaders navigating strategic decisions (Register here)
- Past episodes to explore: Insurance reimbursement, AI efficiency tools, and more available in the podcast archive
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Connect & Subscribe
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Have feedback or a topic request? Jill would love to hear from you!
